This fight is important to me personally because when I was a student, UC had no tuition and I paid $61.50 per semester to attend Cal. The opportunity to receive a world class, public higher education enabled me to pursue careers as a lawyer and contribute to my state and country first as an Assemblyman in the California legislature and later in Congress in Washington, D.C.

But in the decades since, state lawmakers have cut funding for California’s public colleges and universities, and made that same world class education inaccessible to far too many students.

As a UC alum and former state legislator, I am distraught every time I hear stories of students being turned away from our public colleges and universities. I am heart broken when I hear from the thousands of students who are facing hunger and homelessness while working hard to earn a college degree.